Iran to allow foreign tourists to exchange up to $10,000 at entry points
Iran has finalized a scheme allowing foreign tourists to exchange up to $10,000 in foreign currency at banks at the country’s entry points, with transactions to be conducted at the unofficial market rate less a 2% commission, the tourism minister said on Saturday.
“Under the scheme, banks at airports, land border crossings and seaports will be able to convert visitors’ foreign currency into rials,” Reza Salehi-Amiri told a meeting with tourism industry associations, according to IRNA.
He said Bank Shahr, Bank Mellat and Refah Bank had agreed to participate, although preparations for the scheme’s implementation were still under way.
“The $10,000 limit will apply separately to each tourist, including every member of a family,” Salehi-Amiri said.
Visitors will be able to keep any unspent foreign currency for a future trip or receive its equivalent in rials when leaving Iran, calculated at the prevailing rate after deduction of the commission.
Currency exchange has long been a problem for foreign tourists visiting Iran. Salehi-Amiri has previously said that, in the absence of an adequate formal mechanism, visitors had been forced to exchange money through brokers and intermediaries.
The government has also pursued a separate scheme to issue rial-denominated tourism cards.
In June 2026, the Central Bank of Iran revised the rules for the tourism card scheme. Under the regulations, tourists’ foreign currency is exchanged at a rate agreed between them and a bank or exchange office. Cards can be loaded with up to the equivalent of €5,000 or its value in dollars, and each tourist may receive two cards.
It is not yet clear whether the new mechanism announced by Salehi-Amiri, with its $10,000 limit, is separate from the central bank’s tourism card scheme or will be implemented under the existing framework.
The difference between the two limits and the exchange-rate arrangements leaves questions over how the schemes will be coordinated.
At the same meeting, Salehi-Amiri said Iran and Iraq had set a target of 10 million tourist trips between the two countries annually. The target covers travel in both directions, rather than only Iraqi visitors to Iran.
In September, the minister said about 3.6 million Iraqis visited Iran each year, while a similar number of Iranians traveled to Iraq. The figures exclude trips for the annual Arbaeen pilgrimage.
Iraq is one of Iran’s main sources of foreign tourists. About 6.2 million foreign visitors traveled to Iran in 2025, including more than 3.6 million Iraqis, according to figures from the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts.
The scale of arrivals from Iraq makes it a major market for Iran’s efforts to increase tourism revenue and attract foreign visitors.